Review: Blood Vulture – Die Close
We should listen when a comedian gets serious.
I can’t say I followed everything Jordan Olds did with Two Minutes to Late Night and his Covid-era covers with well-known collaborators, but every time I took a peek, I always wondered: “Who the hell is this guy and how is he doing this stuff without making me cringe?” As a guy who seemed to be on the fringes of the scene (i.e. not really in a band), he presented an authenticity that seemed unearned, which is usually a thing that would drive a scene insane, but everyone, including members of some of my favorite bands, were all in on it.
It turns out, everyone was right to do so. Over the course of many covers, Olds proved that he had some guitar and vocal chops, but with Blood Vulture, he proved that he can also write. Die Close is a deeply mournful album, but luckily doesn’t fall into the trap that mournful must also be sparse and boring. Where a repeated chord might have sufficed, Olds packs in a new, unpredictable riff that adds a much-appreciated density to the doomy affair.
Ever since Khemmis’ debut, I have been waiting for copycat bands to come and smother the scene with soaring harmony-filled doom. Thankfully, that didn’t happen, but unfortunately, it seemed like no one else even wanted to try. Blood Vulture owes a lot to that sound, but they also do something else with it. The gothic tone Olds shoots for creates a distinct feel, and most songs being pretty quick, chorus-focused hits is a different approach.
“An Embrace in the Flood” starts the album with the aesthetic that carries you through most of the runtime. It uses a tight, bouncy riff that opens up to create catharsis that pairs perfectly with the sorrowful cleans. “A Dream About Starving to Death” was stuck in my head after the first listen. There’s an emotion there, making it feel like acting more than singing, that really sits with you. These two openers set the scene for what is to come, but then you get some brief variances within tracks like “Entertwined” and “Abomination” that are rich enough to be album-length ideas on their own.
Another small but amazing feat of this album is the ability to make an intro and an interlude actually amount to something. “Die Close”, a song in three parts, uses the first two to hint at the emotional bomb that closes the album. Goddamn, does that repeated line at the end give me chills every time.
Olds doesn’t shy away from bringing in some friends he met along the way, including Jade Puget (AFI), Brian Fair (Shadows Fall), and Kristin Hayter (Lingua Ignota), whose feature on the excellent “Entwined” is slightly marred by her sounding like a spooky ghost, but somehow that works for the track. Maybe it’s just my general dislike of operatic singing.
Die Close is one of those rare debuts that feels like it was painstakingly crafted over years by a band in their prime. Pick it up over at Bandcamp and Pure Noise.
4/5 Flaming Toilets ov Hell
